May 12, 2004
Allard Beutel
Headquarters, Washington
(Phone: 202-/358-0951)
Keith Henry
Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.
(Phone: 757/864-6120/344-7211)
RELEASE: 04-155
NASA SAFETY CENTER RELEASES INITIAL ASSESSMENTS
The Director of NASA's Engineering and Safety Center (NESC), based at
NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., reported on the results
of initial assessments today.
The NESC was created after the Space Shuttle Columbia accident to
serve as a source of expertise for evaluating the merits of technical
concerns identified by agency employees. Assessments are performed
from a source of funding not directly linked to any single NASA
program or project and therefore free from any programmatic bias of
schedule or cost.
Results of four NESC Pathfinder studies were shared with senior NASA
leaders and posted to NASA Web sites. The reporting approach,
actively sharing lessons learned, is modeled after a similar method
used by the U.S. Navy Board of Inspection and Survey.
"I feel very good about what we've accomplished in our first six
months," said NESC Director Ralph Roe. "We have a talented core of
people working within NESC and an outstanding group of people we can
call upon when needed. We have positive feedback from the
partnerships we've begun with industry and academia. We've completed
our first four technical assessments. We're working on several new
major activities, and requests for our services keep coming in," he
added.
The NESC focus is on the successful Space Shuttle return to flight and
the International Space Station. The NESC is also involved in other
NASA activities, such as providing independent expertise for the
Cassini Saturn Orbit Insertion critical events readiness review.
The initial assessments were related to four major projects: The
Cloud-Aerosol Light Detection and Ranging and Infrared Pathfinder
Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) spacecraft, an Earth Science
satellite set to launch in 2005; the X-43A, a hypersonic research
vehicle that successfully flew in March; the Space Shuttle orbiter
rudder/speed brake system; and the Mars Exploration Rovers.
CALIPSO is a joint science mission that includes NASA and the French
space agency. A concern about possible leaks of the spacecraft's
highly reactive fuel from joints in fuel lines during ground
processing led to multiple recommendations to reduce risk to
personnel, the mission and the environment.
The record-breaking hypersonic X-43A did not fly until a dissenting
opinion by one team member was properly addressed. The employee
contacted the NESC with a concern about the vehicle's aerodynamic
characteristics, which could have lead to a loss of vehicle control,
resulting in failure to achieve mission objectives. The NESC worked
with the X-43A project to ensure the employee's concern was properly
addressed before the test flight.
During review of hardware in a Space Shuttle orbiter rudder/speed
brake system, a concern was raised about the effectiveness of grease
in the gear set of the replacement hardware retrieved from long-term
storage. NESC conducted extensive tests and analyses to determine the
grease is still effective. A lesson learned was programs should
periodically review hardware components to ensure qualification and
certification limits are not exceeded.
Prior to the two Mars Exploration Rover landings in January, the NESC
participated in two program reviews. One review dealt with the very
human challenge of supporting round-the-clock staffing for a mission
to Mars, since the martian day is 40 minutes longer than an Earth
day. The second review looked at entry, descent and landing data from
the first rover landing as a guide to fine-tuning the entry, descent
and landing of the second rover. While both landings were successful,
the review revealed the spacecraft was not designed with adequate
instrumentation to distinguish the separate effects of density and
drag coefficient errors on the aerodynamics encountered during entry,
descent, and landing.
For summaries of the four Pathfinder reports, a video clip,
publication quality images and information about NESC on the
Internet, visit:
http://nesc.nasa.gov
http://nesc.nasa.gov For information about NASA and agency programs on
the Internet, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov
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